 Movie
Reviews
with Evelyn Gough
Bruce Almighty
Directed by Tom Shadyac
 In Bruce we trust? Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) gets a lesson in using his devine power from the Almighty (Morgan Freeman).
Jim Carrey playing God? I thought that was Russell Crowe's job! (Apologies to all of Russell's fans, but really, has that guy got an ego or what?)
In his new film Bruce Almighty Jim Carrey is back doing what his fans love best, namely pulling funny faces and playing the clown.
He stars as Bruce Nolan, a whiny pain of a man who is dissatisfied with his lot in life. But is any of it his fault? Oh, no! It's all the fault of God. Bruce's dog pisses on the furniture... It's God's fault. Bruce steps in a puddle... It's God's fault. In fact Bruce isn't a very happy person at all. He doesn't like his job as a television reporter, he doesn't like his apartment and he doesn't appreciate the fact that he has a beautiful, supportive girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) who adores him.
Of course this is a fantasy and it's also a comedy but if I had my way Bruce would become paralysed from the neck down and be forced to live in a cardboard box so he could learn what true suffering was. (Obviously this is why I haven't made it as a script writer!) Instead he is summoned to an empty warehouse where he gets to meet God in person (played by a super suave, extremely sartorial Morgan Freeman). Declaring he needs a holiday, God bestows upon Bruce all of his powers for a week. There are a couple of rules like you can't mess with free will and there are all those billions of annoying prayers to answer but hey, its all worth it when you can make your girlfriend's boobs miraculously bigger.
Okay, I'm being a bit mean, there are a lot of funny moments in Bruce Almighty although personally I could have done with a little less of Carrey doing his all too familiar "thang" and gone with more exploration of the consequences of Bruce's actions. Like, what happened to all the poor people killed by massive tidal waves brought about by Bruce moving the moon closer to impress his girlfriend. But nah, that's obviously way too boring.
However we do get a tacky, schmalzy ending that had me literally groaning.
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